Confronted by Brewer over falsehood, Corsi responds with two more

After being confronted by MSNBC's Contessa Brewer on his book's false claim that Sen. Barack Obama did not dedicate his own book to his mother and grandparents, Jerome Corsi responded with two more falsehoods.

When MSNBC anchor Contessa Brewer pointed out that Jerome Corsi falsely claimed in his new book, The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality (Threshold Editions, August 2008), that Sen. Barack Obama did not dedicate his memoir, Dreams From My Father, to his mother and grandparents, Corsi responded with two more falsehoods. Media Matters for America has previously identified one of the two falsehoods, but there's another. In responding to Brewer -- in addition to misrepresenting the falsehood that Media Matters for Americaidentified -- Corsi also falsely suggested that it is only in the 2004 edition that Obama dedicates Dreams from My Father to his family. In fact, both the 1995 and 2004 editions of Dreams contain an introduction in which Obama dedicates the book to his family.

During an interview with Corsi on the August 5 edition of MSNBC Live, Brewer, citing a report by Media Matters on The Obama Nation's numerous falsehoods, pointed out that contrary to Corsi's assertion that Obama did not dedicate the book to his mother or his grandparents, "it says right in the introduction that it's dedicated to his family." Corsi responded, in part, "In the introduction that he wrote after, this was going with the second book." In fact, Obama's statement, "[i]t is to my family, though, my mother, my grandparents, my siblings, stretched across oceans and continents that I owe the deepest gratitude and to whom I dedicated this book," is included in the introduction to both the 1995 edition (page xi) and 2004 edition (page xvii) of Dreams.

Moreover, while Corsi suggested during his interview that he is familiar with the 1995 edition of Dreams, in an endnote to The Obama Nation, he writes:

Barack Obama, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance (New York: Crown, 2004 [1995]), pp. 3-5. The book, when initially issued in 1995, sold poorly, such that many copies were sold as publisher's remainders. The 1995 edition, as a result, is difficult to find. All quotes are to the 2004 reissue. Obama's autobiographical book is hereafter referred to as Dreams. [Part One, endnote 2, page 306]

Corsi did not state where he looked for and apparently failed to locate the 1995 edition of the book before determining that it was "difficult to find." But Media Matters reviewed a copy at the Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial branch of the District of Columbia Public Library, after determining through a Google Maps search that it was the branch most convenient to Media Matters' offices that had a copy available. The following libraries in the Washington, D.C. area also list the 1995 edition of the book among their holdings: the Library of Congress; the Anacostia Interim, Cleveland Park Neighborhood, Francis A. Gregory Neighborhood, Southwest Neighborhood, and West End Neighborhood branches of the District of Columbia Public Library; and the libraries at American University, George Mason University, Georgetown University, and the University of the District of Columbia. According to his WorldNetDaily.com bio page, Corsi lives in New Jersey; the 1995 edition of Dreams is also available at the libraries of Princeton University and Rutgers University.

As Media Mattersnoted, during the August 5 MSNBC interview, Corsi also claimed, "If you'll read carefully what Media Matters said, they point out there is no dedication page even in the second edition." Corsi later added: "And the original book had no dedication page and this is not the typical way that you dedicate a book. So I'm making the distinction there is no dedication page in the book at all, never has been." In fact, as Brewer and Media Matters noted, Corsi drew no such distinction in The Obama Nation; he falsely claimed only that "Obama did not dedicate Dreams from My Father to his mother, or to his father, Barack Senior, or to his Indonesian stepfather" and that also "[m]issing from the dedication are the grandparents who raised him in Hawaii."

BREWER: You say it's a comprehensive look, and yet there are already online bloggers that are going through this book page by page and picking apart what they see as factual errors. Let me give you an example. You say in this book, "Interestingly, Obama did not dedicate Dreams from My Father to his mother or to his father, Barack Sr., or to his Indonesian stepfather," and Media Matters, the online organization, says in his book, he actually says on a -- on the last page of the introduction, "It is to my family, though, my mother, my grandparents, my siblings, stretched across oceans and continents that I owe the deepest gratitude and to whom I dedicated this book." So if they're going through, and they're finding all of these factual errors in your book, why should we give you the credibility?

CORSI: Let's discuss that one. If you'll read carefully what Media Matters said, they point out there is no dedication page even in the second edition.

BREWER: But it says right in the introduction that it's dedicated to his family.

CORSI: In the introduction that he wrote after, this was going with the second book. And the original book had no dedication page and this is not the typical way that you dedicate a book. So I'm making the distinction there is no dedication page in the book at all, never has been.